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Trivia
Did you know that early photographs of the Don Mills Centre revealed a classical simplicity? In its design, John B. Parkin & Associates used the same principles as those of the ancient Greeks. In Athens the great marketplace was called the Agora and it was the centre of trade, schools and the law courts. Its trade area consisted of open-sided markets. This open concept was used in the Don Mills Centre and a protective canopy or arcade ran above the walkways accessing the shops and offering protection from the elements. There was parking on all sides. The landscaping of trees, flowers, gardens, and a reflecting pool with its central fountain drew the concept together, making the whole area attractive and inviting. *When 33 Division had its headquarters on Sanderling Place, they had 33 parking spots. *At Don Mills Centre, the LCBO store was situated in the middle of a parking lot, due to the policy of the mall-anchoring T. Eaton Company that it would never be located in the same place as a liquor store. *The land where the Ontario Science Centre is currently located used to be a mushroom farm. *Alana Myles attended St. Bonaventure School and started her first band in Grade 1. She and her bandmates went to Columbia Records -- in Grade 1 !! -- to try to get them to listen to their music. *It's widely accepted by many real estate professionals that the average stay for a family in one home is around 5 years. This however, is not the case for Don Mills. It is not uncommon to find residents in their homes for more than 40 years; some who have passed on their home to children showing the intense loyalty and love that residents have for Don Mills. *Mrs. Win Rutledge taught ballet at Bethesda Church. Win Rutledge's husband Floyd has some of his artwork in the War Museum in Ottawa. *The land on which Don Mills was established dates back to 1793! It was then that governor Simcoe began advertising free lots to new settlers, as incentives for people to emigrate to Canada. *In the early 1953’s, when Don Mills was first established, homes were very attractively priced at around $13,750! *Macklin Hancock was a 27-year-old Harvard graduate student when Toronto business magnate E.P. Taylor gave him the opportunity to design the planned community of Don Mills. *The original plan for don mills was quite unique in many ways, however one of the standout features which still remains today is that of the differing style, size and curb appeal of the homes. Rather than building identical houses, bungalows, detached, semi-detached and even apartment buildings were amalgamated in similar areas to allow for all people of different socio-economic levels to enjoy Don Mills. *Did you know that there was a bomb/fallout shelter in the basement of the Post Office (at 169 The Donway West)? *From the air the Inn on The Park hotel appeared as the Star of David, a tribute to founder Isadore Sharp's Jewish origins. * DMCI had the first brick-dust track in Canada (1960). * In March 1981, the school allowed the Canadian executive director of the Ku Klux Klan to speak to a Grade 12 history class. The principal later said it would never happen again. * A 25-year-old English teacher at DMCI was suspended in 1971 after police seized 16 marijuana plants from the garden at his home. He was convicted of possession. It was a huge news story in the Toronto area at the time, triggering discussions for months in the media about DMCI."Teacher suspended after marijuana conviction," Toronto Star, October 16, 1971"'I wonder what you're doing in a school' judge told teacher who had marijuana," Toronto Star, October 29, 1971"A graduate of Don Mills Collegiate defends the school," Toronto Star, January 20, 1972 * DMCI/Don Mills Middle School: Initially, the board planned to build two separate schools on the site with a shared heating plant, but in October 1957, trustee Dorothy Bishop prepared a report which raised the possibility of saving money by placing the two schools under one roof, as had previously been done in Vancouver and Calgary. * In October 1969 DMCI suspended 19 football players for drinking beer on a bus ride back from a game. The school pulled the team from the league for the remainder of the season. * Sue Johanson, from the Sunday Night Sex Show, opened the area's first high school-based birth control clinic at DMCI in November 1972. Called the Don Mills Birth Control Clinic, it used the school's health room every Monday night (expanded to two nights a week in 1980). The school principal said DMCI was "completely uninvolved" with the clinic, except for providing space."In Don Mills: Birth control clinic finds students wary," Marg Mironowicz, Toronto Star, November 14, 1972 * The Bank of Montreal and the adjacent Bank of Nova Scotia are the earliest examples of International Style glass banks in Ontario. These two unprecedented buildings set a standard for bank architecture that was very influential in Canada, inspiring such work as the Royal Bank.ERA North York Modernist Architecture, E.R.A. Architects 2009, p 8 * When built, the Don Mills Odeon was the first new four-wall theatre to be built in the provincial capital in a decade.Box Office Magazine, October 21, 1963 * The Flemingdon Community Food Bank was originally run by the Red Cross. When the organization left the community, the Anglican ministry ran the food bank from the Don Mills Plaza. North York Mirror, June 9, 2010 References